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did great for anting today


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6 replies to this topic

#1 Offline Vendayn - Posted April 30 2015 - 2:25 PM

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Staying at a motel for a day in Irvine (southern California). Nothing bad, but work being done on our apartment unit.

First. A non ant. A colony of western subterranean termites. :) tons of secondary reproductive, big soldiers and lots of workers. Very good termite colony.

Next is a Pheidole colony, my best find. Nesting in a piece of wood. Very tiny workers and soldiers, and light orange/reddish color almost see through. Tiny alates.

And finally, one of my favorites. A huge Monomorium ergatogyna colony. Over 20 queens, tons of brood. Thousands of workers. They make super colonies, and win 100% of their fights against Argentine ants.
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#2 Offline Ants4fun - Posted April 30 2015 - 4:25 PM

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Cool! you should introduce them into your yard and eradicate the argies!


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#3 Offline Forestflamboyant - Posted April 30 2015 - 6:46 PM

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Howdy! so did you take any pictures to show off?


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#4 Offline Vendayn - Posted April 30 2015 - 8:13 PM

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No :( Sadly, my camera broke when moving as the lens was cracked and it won't turn on no matter what even with a replacement battery. The charging doesn't even work either. No money to afford a new one. And I thought I got lucky cause we were sorting through boxes and found it, but nope. :( However, tomorrow I can take rather low quality phone pictures of the setups. :P My phone doesn't take very good pictues.

 

As for introducing the M. ergatogyna. I'll wait until I know if we are moving or not after this year. If we stay here, I'll just keep them and maybe see if anyone wants any (I got WAY too many). There is a lot of Brachymyrmex around, Tetramorium scattered around, some Solenopsis colonies and two Pogonomyrmex colonies. Oh, and a couple Dorymyrmex bicolor colonies that got out of my ant farms before I got fluon. Most of the Argentine ants within the complex itself are dead from the Brachymyrmex or driven off or just died for whatever reason. If I introduce Monomorium ergatogyna, while they ARE native...they'd dominate too much for my liking for an area with a large diversity. Of course, outside where the apartment blocks are...where the walk paths go around and by the river...there is billions of Argentine ants. Not much except the occasional Brachymyrmex around there. That is all on the other side of the main road. Inside where all the sidewalks/units are...barely any Argentine ants.

 

Introducing them even if they are native, would likely more end up killing all the interesting ants inside the complex. And if we move somewhere with a large diversity of ants like where I live now, I won't introduce any ants either. More likely, I'll end up in a place dominated by Argentine ants or Solenopsis invicta or both...but you never know what you'll find. :P

 

I mean, yeah they are native like I said...except like Tapinoma sessile...in urban areas develop super colonies and dominate. So, I don't think it be a good idea unless it was just Argentine ants or S. invicta in the area. Which most of the inside of the complex do not have.

 

As for my colonies.

 

My Pheidole colony, I think is Pheidole moerens. They rarely nest in soil (check), small colonies (up to 600, so I'll see how big mine gets in captivity) (check), not very aggressive (check), same appearance (check) and finally, they are found here as they have been imported. Since I got a huge piece of wood that had eggs, alates and various larvae/pupae...I'm positive I got the queen. Especially since I dug around the piece of wood, and found only a few soldiers/workers and no brood at all. And since they almost never nest in soil...I got a queen! :D

 

My termites are better than I thought. Then again, when I get a GOOD termite colony...one piece of wood that might not look big...can have 1000s of termites crammed into it. I find this can be rare to find a piece of wood this good with so many termites, so I got lucky.

 

And finally, my Monomorium ergaotgyna colony. Yeah, I have a problem.

 

First, while they are tiny and I don't imagine each queen lays very many eggs (so tiny!). Yeah, I very easily got over 100 queens. I see over 50 just crawling on the surface going to the piece of wood I put in, and going various places. Now, while that is only on the surface...the queens are tiny and can hide really well and hide into the wood/soil easily. So, if I have (at least) 50 just right on the surface...I must have WAY more hiding. That doesn't include the males and female alates I got, and they'll mate in captivity and produce alates in captivity...yeah...and don't even ask how many workers I got (how did I get that many? I didn't see that many in the soil...so tiny and hide so well!)

 

This colony is going to grow insanely fast. And if a success (pretty easy species), they'll produce more males and females xD. I think I might have got too many queens and I didn't realize it as they hide in the soil so easy. I don't really know what I'll do, but guess take it one step at a time.

 

Also, my containers from bed bath and beyond don't work with this species. I put fluon on top, olive oil on bottom...and the M. ergatogyna workers crossed over it with no problem and I applied it like I always apply it so that wasn't the issue.

 

I emptied out the containers (they were really small, which was probably the problem) into a larger container with better quality plastic. I again put fluon on top, olive oil on bottom (I did it after I put ants in, because I didn't want dirt on the oil or fluon) and it worked right away. With that said, this species DOES climb really well and are amazing escape artists. Probably #1 native species in California that is the hardest to contain lol. No other species can escape as well as they do, beating out even Solenopsis molesta for me. They are tiny, find every hole or path to freedom. Keeping this species would NOT work at all without fluon. Even with fluon its a bit hard. If you ever see this species, I actually recommend ignoring it as they are pretty advanced to keep and not easy at all.

 

Keeping them alive? Easy. Keeping them from escaping? Expert.

 

If you have fluon, its a lot easier though...but I find one little problem with the fluon (like if I accidentally touched the application of fluon (even after it dries) and left a hint of dust)...a line of workers within 30 seconds will suddenly be going to freedom. So, with that in mind...I applied the fluon on the outside (like I did with the others), like recommended anyway. However, I find I keep needing to do touchups and I don't have to do this with any of my other species I keep and I applied the fluon 100% the same as before. I guess it just needs absolute perfect application for this particular species. :P With that said, no escapes for the past 2 hours...so I probably fixed it now.

 

By the way, anyone want Monomorium ergatogyna along with a very high quality container? I have no plans to sell/trade them right now as I just got them obviously. But...I got so many and I think way too many, I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle it with their expert escape skills. If I surprise myself and find I can keep a really hard to keep species, then I'll keep them till I move. So, nothing 100% of course. I'd rather keep them to be honest, but if my skills aren't good enough...I'm not going to release them around here. With that, I hope I can actually keep them as I always wanted a good colony of them.


Edited by Vendayn, April 30 2015 - 8:40 PM.


#5 Offline Vendayn - Posted May 1 2015 - 12:03 AM

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This proves to me at least, that even in an unlikely area...amazing things can be found. :)

All around the motel was mostly Argentine ants. Across the mainstreet, was definitely Argentine ant territory. Yet, one side of the hotel that looked like it hadn't been maintained very well (where the parking is) and a bunch of dead trees (some were because they were cut down and the wood was just left there) and it was on the drier side (still had a thin lawn). It was a pretty small area really, and surprisingly there was an Argentine ant colony but it was very tiny. Yet, here was a Monomorium ergatogyna colony and was rather big. I didn't even barely get any of them and I ended up with WAY too many. Then a big surprise was the Pheidole colony I found nesting in one of the wood bits. And of course, finding termites amongst dead wood is pretty much a given unless there is too many invasive ants there.

 

Such a small area too, it was very thin (just a thin plant strip, that widened a bit at the end where the road was) and not that much nesting space available. But, I'm guessing all the dead wood, and because it was a bit too dry for Argentine ants...made it a great environment for other ants and insects. Everywhere else in that area just had tons of Argentine ants...just not this small little area.



#6 Offline Ants4fun - Posted May 1 2015 - 4:14 AM

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That's one benefit of living in the north... Not many introduced ants to dominate!
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#7 Offline Forestflamboyant - Posted May 4 2015 - 6:17 PM

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Do you know that the argies, I liked that nick name btw!! Can't live in very hot or cold temperatures. They are more of a temperate tropical species that's found mostly in cities around the coast. They may have their way in there area but outside it they don't prevail........ 






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